French sailing star Gavignet went into the 140 nautical mile leg from Khasab on Oman’s Musandam peninsula to Sohar in pole position after winning two of the three previous offshore legs of the tour.

But the Al Mouj, Muscat crew, led by fellow Frenchman Nico Lunven, put a dent in reigning EFG SATT champion Gavignet’s domination by snatching victory in a fast and furious downwind sprint south along Oman’s stunning coastline.

British title contenders Team Averda also managed to hold off EFG Bank Monaco to claim the runner up spot in the leg, the fourth of five that make up the 730nm adventure around the Arabian Gulf.

The results mean that everything is to play for in the final leg of the event, a 100nm dash from Sohar to Oman’s capital Muscat starting on Sunday.

EFG Bank Monaco go into the finale with an eight-point lead over closest rivals Team Averda, but Marcel Herrera’s men could still win the title if they finish the leg in first and Gavignet’s crew come last.

However they will also have to defend their second place from Al Mouj, Muscat who now sit just 0.75 points behind them after today’s leg 4 triumph.

Dee Caffari’s Oman Airports-Al Thuraya Women’s Team were handed maximum points for the leg after missing the cut off time to finish.

“Leg 4 was great racing – lots of fighting, lots of position changes but pretty tiring as well,” said Gavignet, who has won the past two editions of EFG SATT with EFG Bank Monaco.

“We made a few small mistakes but we’re happy with third place, we did a good job.

“We are quite comfortable at the top of the leaderboard but we still need to finish.

“At some points of leg 4 we were not very far from last where a few minutes before we had been in first.